La Gran Adventura: Day 1-3

We had a wonderful send-off party hosted by Roberta, Nina, and Brock. The guest list was an eclectic mix of Roberta's family, a few Bethel co-workers, friends dating back 30+ years, and Conor's friends. -Jay

Here are a couple of my friends from high school who came to see us off. As you can tell we like to take time from our lively conversations to devour this amazing smoked chicken and rib dinner. - Conor

After the dinner we spent some time introducing all our guests to one another. This was followed by a short "program" that included showing the trip route and explaining our choice of two KLR 650s and modifications we made to the bikes. - Jay

The trip was broken into four major legs: U.S. (3 nights), Mexico (7 nights), Central America (18 nights), and South America (43 nights). The first two legs of the journey (especially the U.S. portion) included covering quite a few miles each day. The one deadline that's not flexible is when our boat leaves the Panama City area bound for Catagena, Colombia on June 13th. Miss the boat and we're waiting a month or scrambling to find another way around the Darrien Gap. - Jay

Here is my sister, Nina, and my Aunt Regina. They were both enjoying the party and learning more about the adventures that we would be taking on La Gran Adventura. - Conor

Here is my cousin Jesse. He joined us for the first part of our trip to Laredo,Texas. It was his first long ride and he made it with no problems at all!- Conor

Here I am giving a rundown of the bike with all the modifications that we did to it. You will notice the tires on the back held together by duct tape. We will be switching out the tires that are currently on our bikes in Oaxaca. Tires for KLRs are commonly found for KLRs in CA and SA but it's difficult to find high end 80-20 tires (80% of the time on pavement and 20% on gravel and other surfaces) - Conor

Here I am in action once again fielding questions from some friends as to the modifications to the bikes. I think my Dad is answering the same question with greater clarity then I could ever hope for.- Conor

Some of the modifications that we made on the bike were adding a truck horn, new leather seat, heated grips, custom windshield, crash bars and skid plate, extra front fork brace, lowered front fender, lockable aluminum panniers, and several internal engine mods (doo-hickey & thermobob). All of these modifications were made with this trip in mind and have thus far proved to be worth it.- Conor

Even with almost two years of planning the trip came down to a final 11:30PM packing on May 20th. The big question was would everything fit! Fortunately it did. - Jay

Day 1 (Emporia, Kansas) was 550 miles, Day 2 (Austin, Texas) was a whooping 627 miles, and Day 3 (Laredo, Texas) was a short recovery day of 233 miles. - Jay

Day 1 included all the customary pictures in the driveway. You can see the tire duct tape gave way to handiwrap ties (thanks, Tom) and backpacking straps. This proved to be a good combo. - Jay

For me it was hard to believe the departure day finally arrived. For months I was waiting for this day and it came REALLY fast in the last week. Emotions ranged from excitement, sadness (not seeing wife and other family for 71 days), trepidation (am I really doing this!), and anticipation about all the things we'll see do. - Jay

I couldn't think of a better travel partner on this trip than my son. He's a warrior, easy going, never complains, and manages to find the bright side of every challenge. I also know that he's praying continually for the trip and folks we'll meet along the way. - Jay

Here is our family. This will be the last time we're all together till the second week in August. Nina will be going to Ireland and Roberta will be spending some time at our casita in Mexico with Nina. - Conor

Thanks to Roberta (far left) for allowing Conor and me to live out this dream. I'm blessed by a family that loves and supports travel. Nina is equally bitten by the travel bug and she's currently scheming a trip to Ireland (with Brock this summer), a trip to Cuba (our extended family over Christmas), and trip to Turkey (immediate family next summer). - Jay

My nephew Jessie (age 20 from Illinois) will be joining us on the U.S. leg of the trip. - Jay

My brother-in-law Tom (a Harley guy through and through) will be joining us as well. This extra support and company during the first few days proved to be really helpful. - Jay

Final parting shots. - Jay

Here is the gang ready to depart on May 21st. We were well fed and ready to roll. - Jay

Two Harley's and two Kawasaki 650s - about as different types of bikes as you can imagine. Conor is carrying two large waterproof PVC bags holding the bulk of our clothing. - Jay

Day 1 turned out to be about 11 hours of sailing down I-35 from Minneapolis to Emporia. We tried to maintain a steady speed of about 70 mph and we had perfect temps ranging from 64-85 degrees. - Jay

Jessie, looking pretty stylish as well. Jessie's one bike mod was adding an Airhawk seat (gel) which helped him protect a valuable part of an rider's anatomy! - Jay

You've heard of the Bates Motel? This was probably one star below the Bates but they did have beds, a door, a bathroom, and no bed bugs. Cheap in the U.S. doesn't get you much. In Mexico, CA, and SA you can stay in relative luxury for the same price. - Jay

Home sweet home. We'll cover the bikes each night for security reasons and to protect from rain, etc. - Jay

Unfortunately, gas stations are a regular feature of cycle trips. Our tanks hold 5.8 gallons which gives us a range of 250 miles; we normally hit about 50 mpg. On Day 1 we left Minnesota with gas at $4.29 a gallon and the low we found was in Laredo at 3.28. Gas in Leg 2, Mexico, will be in the range of $3 gallon. - Jay

Day 2 took us through Oklahoma City, the site of an F5 tornado on May 20th. I've never seen destruction quite like this and the current estimate is that 24 people lost their lives in this tragedy. - Jay

I'll let the pictures that follow speak. - Jay

At one point in time this was an entire shopping mall. - Jay

We finished off a tough 627 mile day at the Austin home of my cousin Tom and wife Fran. Dinner was an amazing meal at Rudy's Bar-B-Que (they NEED these in Minnesota) and we all slept long and hard. I can't imagine better hosts and it was great to be in a real home after the Bates wanna-be. - Jay

Huge thank you to Tom and Fran Johnson for letting us stay with them in Austin. Also huge thank you to Tank for being the such a well trained dog and an instantaneous friend! - Conor

Day 3 took us to Laredo, a short jaunt of 233 miles. We picked Laredo because it's on the border and would allow us to make significant progress into the interior of Mexico on Day 4. Stay tuned for more updates....... - Jay